Swartz supporters rally behind ‘Aaron’s Law’

Laurel J. SweetThursday, January 17, 2013

Credit: AP/The New York Times

Internet activist Aaron Swartz was found dead Friday, Jan. 11, 2013, in his Brooklyn, N.Y., apartment, according to Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for New York's medical examiner. Since his suicide, friends and admirers have eulogized the 26-year-old as a martyred hero, hounded to his death by the government he antagonized.

comments

A noted Harvard Law School professor and “close friend” of late cyber-superstar Aaron Swartz is urging the accused hacker’s growing base of supporters to pressure members of Congress to co-sponsor a proposed “Aaron’s Law,” which, if passed, would decriminalize portions of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

“We are sad. We’re tired. We’re frustrated and we’re angry at a system that let this happen to Aaron,” Lawrence Lessig said in a letter jointly released this morning with Swartz’ civil liberties group Demand Progress.

“We and Aaron’s friends and family have been in touch with lawmakers to ask for help,” the letter continues. “We’re asking them to help rein in a criminal justice system run amok. Authorities are encouraged to bring frivolous charges and hold decades of jail time over the heads of people accused of victimless crimes.”

A public service is planned for Swartz in New York City on Saturday from 4 to 6 p.m. at the historic Great Hall of Cooper Union.

Swartz, 26, a founder of Reddit and co-creator of RSS, took his life in his New York apartment last Friday, three months before he was scheduled to go on trial in Boston, facing up to 30 years in prison and $1 million in fines for illegally downloading academic journal articles on a laptop he set up at MIT.

U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, under fire from Swartz’ grieving family and critics for what they contend was an overzealous prosecution, said in a statement released late last night that pursuing computer and wire fraud charges against Swartz was “appropriate.” Ortiz said her office never intended to seek the maximum penalties had he been convicted.

U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel Gorton dismissed the case Monday.

Aaron’s Law will be introduced by U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), who proposes decriminalizing online “terms of service” agreements that require computer uses to click to proceed onto a Web site or Internet service provider. Some of the charges Swartz faced related to alleged violations of such an agreement.

“As currently written, Aaron’s Law alone wouldn’t have saved Aaron — there is still more to do to make sure that victimless computer activities are not charged as felonies,” Demand Progress executive director David Segal said in a statement, “but this is a solid start that we can pass now and it’s a law he wanted to change. And then we’ll keep pushing.

“This is just a start,” Segal said. “Demand Progress and Aaron’s friends and family will continue to push for key reforms to the criminal justice system, and otherwise work towards forwarding Aaron’s life’s work. It’s so hard to determine a fitting tribute to him: He cared about so much, had done so much, and would have done so much more if he were still with us.”